Extra-Intellect - The Baseball Blog

Quick-Hitting Baseball Analysis

Tuesday, December 16

Mad Friars/Ducksnorts Padres Top-20 Prospects

One thing I like to do is compare my top lists for each team with similar top prospect lists. Geoff Young of the Padres blog Ducksnorts came out with his top-20 list for Mad Friars, which you can read here. The biggest differences on this list:

1. Blanks ended up No. 1, while Kulbacki was No. 2. I can't really argue with the position as Blanks is younger and played in at a higher level. For me, the positional difference in value was the ultimate deciding factor.

2. Latos ranked No. 6 on this list, while I ranked him No. 2. I felt his upside justifed the spot and his past injries weren't arm/shoulder related. But his track record is small so I understand the spot.

3. Two players (Yefri Carvajal and Jonathan Galvez) were placed fairly high. I simply need to see more production from Carvajal before rating him any higher, especially since he's a corner outfielder and will need to produce. I don't know enough about Galvez to get an accurate read on him.

Overall, the two lists are pretty comparable with just a couple notable differences.

Thursday, December 11

CC Sabathia to the Yanks

I went ahead and updated a past article on CC Sabathia to include my thoughts on his signing with the New York Yankees. The scouting report in the article still holds true as it was made during the middle of last season.

Tuesday, December 9

Winter Meetings News: Giants Edition

> We begin with the McCovey Chronicals as they look deep into the Giants search for a new third baseman.

> El Lefty Malo explores the Giants interest in Hank Blalock and other mediocre corner infielders on the market...

> Martin Lee of Obsessive Giants Compulsive looks at past factors that were never talked about when it came to the Giants and free agency.

> Lastly, Bay City Ball sees how various Giants rated in UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating), which is another way to measure a player's fielding performance.

Saturday, November 29

Padres Blast from the Past: A Look at Past Drafts and Free Agents

Geoff Young of the Padres site Ducksnorts takes a brief look at past drafts and free agent moves by San Diego management. This "Blast from the Past" article is part of a series...

Monday, November 16

Was the Dodgers' Offer to Manny Ramirez An Insult?

Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts explains why it was not...

Tuesday, October 28

A New Series and A Couple New Pages at Baseball-Intellect

Today we begin Baseball-Intellect's Top-15 Prospect Lists for each team. You can read the overview on what to expect going forward and how the rankings and grades are determined. In addition to this series, I have added an index page that readers can use to access the top prospect lists as they are published. In addition, I am making Team Pages for each team which will be published in conjunction with the team's top prospect list. You can access the index of each team's page here.

I will roll out each team's list throughout the offseason and perhaps even into the season if I run out of time. Disagreements and feedback can be sent to me using the contact form.

Lastly, only subscribers to my Newsletter--which provides you with updates and extra prospect reports among other things--will get the profile to each team's 15th rated prospect. Once a division of teams have their lists published, I will send out a Newsletter profiling the 15th rated prospects for each team in that division. If possible, I am hoping to provide some video on a few of the players in the Newsletter. You can sign up for the Newsletter by clicking this link or by using the form below:

I also encourage every reader of this site to link out heavily if they deem an article worthy enough because I would then be able to devote more time to creating content.

Wednesday, October 15

Profiling Prospects: the Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox

For about 90% of the writers around the webosphere who's team is not in the playoffs, the focus is typically on what that team should focus on in the upcoming offseason, who's available in free agency, who's on the trade block, etc. We also start to see writers taking a more in-depth look at the prospects in their minor league system. Talking Chop and Southside Sox have been doing their own prospect reviews and both are worth reading:

Talking Chop - A Look at the Present and Future Right Handed Starters

South Side Sox - Lining Up the Suspects and Profiling the Prospects

Thursday, October 2

Joba Chamberlain to Be Starter in 2009

Just to put to rest one of the more debated about subjects, especially among Yankee fans, Brian Cashman announced today that Joba Chamberlain will be placed in the starting rotation for the 2009 season. H/T to River Ave. Blues, which provides the link to the interview in which Cashman makes this announcement.

This is a good move by Cashman because Joba will be more valuable to the Yankees as a starter than as a reliever and I don't think pitching in the bullpen is necessarily safer on one's arm than starting. We'll see if he can hold up.

*Cross posted at THT Live

Friday, September 5

An Interview with Dane Johnson

Batter's Box Interactive recently conducted an interview with Dane Johnson, the Blue Jays minor league pitching coordinator. One question stood out to me:

BB: Brad Mills has two excellent pitches but his fastball is only average and he tends to pitch up in the zone with it. Are you trying to get him to improve his fastball?

DJ: He is working on it but I think it will work in the major leagues due to his other pitches, even if it is high it comes out like his curveball so it's not obviously a fastball. In general we would like every pitcher to get their fastballs down but in Mills' case he should be OK. With Mills command is the key for him to be successful.

It stood out to me because Mills is a pitcher I've had my eye on for a while--essentially since the moment he was drafted. He isn't the typical pitcher I usually like and I would like to conduct a more in-depth take on him, but in summary, he is an extremely bright pitcher with two plus-pitches (the change-up and curveball). The change-up, some would consider, is plus-plus. The fastball has average velocity and is fairly straight, but his command excellent. I hope to offer some more info. on Mills in the near future.

Thursday, September 4

An Interview with Jeff Albert

This is somewhat old, but it's still relevant nonetheless. Future Redbirds has an interview up with Jeff Albert, a hitting intstructor in the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system. Before landing his current gig, Albert ran the website swingtraining.net and was a writer for the Baseball Analysts. He was one of my influences as I conducted my research on what constitutes a high-level swing. Definitely worth the read.

Wednesday, September 3

A Couple of Changes

From now on, Extra-Intellect will be used for the Baseball Blog, which is where I will publish more quick-hit type articles without much use of video. The older page you can still see here and will now be limited to more of a tradition BlogRoll page in addition to becoming an archive page for any link love-type articles.